During the late 19th century, waves of French Catholics migrated to Connecticut from Canada and Maine. With 200 French families in Bristol by 1905, three representatives met with Bishop Michael A. Tierney to request a separate parish for French-Canadians. As a result, Father Joseph P. Perreault was appointed first pastor on November 28 at the old Town Hall on Main Street.

By January 1908, the liturgical celebrations were moved to the second floor of the J.H. Sessions and Son factory on North Main Street.

A site for a parish church was selected in July at the corner of West and Gaylord streets. A basement church was erected and hosted its first Mass on Christmas Day 1908.

Father Perreault next planned a school and convent to fulfill the desires of his parishioners for a Catholic education for their children.

St. Ann School opened on September 4, 1918, staffed by the Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On December 20, 1953, Archbishop Henry J. O’Brien dedicated a new St. Ann Church on top of the old basement church.

In 1982 the Sisters of the Assumption departed, and the school became lay-staffed, eventually closing in June 1989.